Prisoner at Gitmo Found Unconscious Dies

A prisoner has died at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, the US military said today, two days after the man was apparently found unconscious in his cell at the isolated, high-security prison. The prisoner, whose name and nationality were not released, was found by guards on Saturday and taken to a base hospital, where he was declared dead "after extensive lifesaving measures had been performed," the US military's Southern Command said in a brief statement. A medical examiner has been brought to the base to determine the exact cause of death.

He was the ninth prisoner to die at the facility since it was opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of terrorism or links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The military has said two of those deaths were by natural causes and six were declared suicides. The death occurred in Camp 5, a section of the prison used mostly to hold prisoners who have broken detention center rules, said a spokesman for the prison. This prisoner had recently splashed a guard with what military officials call a "cocktail," typically a mixture of food and bodily fluids, which is why he was on disciplinary status, the spokesman said. (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)